All around is a dark sea threatening
to swallow challengers –
boats approach in failed attempts
at reconciliation, boiling over⠀⠀⠀⠀
at the hull with sailors shaped like men
mouthing tame loose-lipped⠀⠀⠀⠀
apologies. Mumbled voices blanket & eddy
around the storm as sailors foam ⠀⠀
at the mouth. If they survive to tell tales
like medaled soldiers, ⠀⠀
they’ll speak only of lackluster pearls
at the bottom or fabricate ⠀⠀
fables of phantom siren songs, and
forget the fish, fail to mention ⠀⠀
the tuna: one long silver arc, zipping
across all that blue. ⠀⠀
Fluttering like a winged insect to touch,
the fish turns & turns ⠀⠀
like a skipping stone which only knows
to stir each morning ⠀⠀
because it was cast out by someone
else’s hand & forgotten.
Elly Luisa Salah is an MFA candidate in poetry at Bowling Green State University. Elly received a BA from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she studied sociology and creative writing. Elly is the daughter of Algerian & Danish immigrants. Her work has been featured or is forthcoming in Bear Review, Revolute Literary Magazine, Scraps, Strange Horizons, swamp pink, Taos Journal of Poetry, and others. She is also an assistant editor for MAR, co-managing the Mid-American Review blog.